BlackBerry developer Research in Motion reported third-quarter net income on continuing operations of $1.27 a share, ahead of estimates, as revenue dipped six percent to $5.2 billion.

The Waterloo, Ontario-based developer said it now has 75 million customers, despite the October snafu that clogged its e-mail servers for three days.

RIM shares closed Thursday at $15.33, up a nickel, but have lost nearly 75 percent this year, giving the company a market capitalization of $7.9 billion and enterprise value of $6.7 billion, which interests at least two recent investors, Toronto's Jaguar Financial and New York's Omega Advisers.

The activist investors, Victor Alboini and Leon Cooperman, respectively, believe the Waterloo, Ontario-based BlackBerry and BlackBerry PlayBook provider has great value but hasn't executed properly.

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Co-CEOs Mike Laziridis and James Balsillie promised "to capitalize on our strengths to overcome the recent execution challenges surrounding products launches and the resulting financial performance." They may shed more light in an investor call late Thursday.

Here are five items noted in the announcement:

What are the actual results? Analysts expected earnings around $1.19 a share on revenue of $5.27 billion, according to ThomsonReuters estimates.  A year ago, RIM reported third quarter net income of $1.74 a share on revenue of $5.5 billion.

RIM already said on Dec. 2 it planned a $485 million pre-tax charge to write off the inventory of slow-selling PlayBooks.

That meant actual net income plunged to $265 million, or 51 cents a share.

Fourth-quarter results are estimated between $4.6 billion and $4.9 billion, with earnings ranging between 80 and 90 cents a share.

What are estimates for fourth-quarter shipments? As enterprise users shift away from BlackBerry products to Apple's iPhone and Android OS-based products from Samsung Electronics and HTC, how will management protect the franchise? Can they recover from the October e-mail snafu?

RIM announced that current BlackBerry Torch models have done well, selling 14.1 million smartphones and 150,000 PlayBook tablets in the quarter..

The company estimated it will sell between 11 million and 12 million smartphones in the current fourth quarter but didn't estimate PlayBooks, perhaps saving information for later.

What's the future of the PlayBook tablet? With Apple's sales of more than 32 million iPad2s in the year ended in September and new entrants from Samsung, Sony, Lenovo and Amazon in the market, how many PlayBooks will be shipped in the fourth quarter before the upgrade to the QNX OS, which RIM acquired in 2010? Apple reported a sales slowdown in iPhone 4S in late September because consumers expected a new product, the iPhone 5 which turned out to be the very popular iPhone 4S.

RIM didn't estimate how many PlayBooks it plans to ship, which could indicate it will wait until the QNX versions are ready later in 2012

What's RIM's cash position? How much cash RIM has as well as cash flow generated in the quarter will be crucial to see if RIM can afford the transition. RIM reported cash and investments of $1.5 billion as of Nov. 26, slightly ahead of last quarter. Cash flow was $875 million and spending on patents was $375 million.

RIM spent $780 million as its share in the Apple-led syndicate that acquired wireless patents for $4.5 billion from defunct Nortel Networks in the second quarter.

Will RIM announce a patent auction? Jaguar's Alboini told International Business Times the company could evaluate its patent portfolio and enhance shareholder value by auctioning some it, as Eastman Kodak is doing. InterDigital has placed itself up for auction. Google said part of the rationale for its planned $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility is for its 17,500 patents.

There are some other questions, such as alliances, perhaps with Microsoft or Google for the OS, or approaches to private equity companies for a takeover. Alboini has demanded changes at the board level.

Management didn't address any of those issue in its earnings announcement, hinting only that it would take steps to improve performance.

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